Q & A With Scot McCloughan

New General Manager Scot McCloughan talks about Mike Martz, Alex Smith and his own philosophy on football players among other topics.

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE MIKE MARTZ HIRE?: Everywhere he’s been he’s had success in getting the most out of quarterbacks, which I think is very important. Nowadays it’s about being innovative and getting mismatches. He’s done all that. The major thing about it was his experience for the young guys for our offense. He will take command just like a Norv Turner would, where the (players will) say, “He’s been successful, let’s listen to him.” I don’t know the guy personally, but I’ll get to know him pretty darn soon. People are worried about his type of player vs. my type of player, I’m not worried about that. If he has some ideas about how to get the team better, I’m definitely going to listen. I’m still not going away from my philosophy of football players.

HAVE YOU TALKED TO HIM YET?: Very briefly. We haven’t sat down and talked, no. (They plan to talk at the Senior Bowl). He’s varied. When you go look at his St. Louis background, he was 50-50 run to pass. They had a dang good running back in Marshall Faulk and we have a dang good running back in Frank Gore. I think what he has done is try to adjust to give the team the best chance to win and if they need to throw more because the defense isn’t doing well, then they are going to throw more. The one thing about him, that I respect in the little time I talked to him, is his strong belief in the personnel we have. I think he’s been around football enough that he will adjust to our guys to give us the best chance to win.

THE HIGHEST PERCENTAGE OF RUN RATIO WAS 43 PERCENT IN ST. LOUIS: When he was in St. Louis he had two Hall of Fame receivers and when you have the league MVP throwing the ball, you’re going to end up throwing it. If we had two receivers and a quarterback like that, we are going to throw it 30 times a game too.

YOU THINK HE’LL ADJUST TO WHAT YOU HAVE OFFENSIVELY?: Most definitely, no doubt about it.

HOW WOULD ASSESS HIS OFFENSE?: Just that he’s very innovative. The league is set to score points. The fans want points, the NFL office wants points. You need a guy that gets mismatches. But you’ve got to be able to play power football when you need to. You got to be able to throw the ball down the field when you need to.

YOU MENTIONED YOUR PHILOSOPHYY ON PLAYERS, WHAT IS IT EXACTLY?: I will give away a little on the height, weight and speed for a consistent player. I think it’s important to be mentally and physically tough. You got to let them understand that it’s a team game, not an individual game, that the only way we are going to be good is as a group. You see a lot of our second-day guys are like that, Billy Bajema, Parys Haralson, Michael Robinson, they might not be the prettiest players, but they are good football players day in and day out. You get enough of those guys around you’ll find your superstars, they’ll step up, I think they have already.

CAN THE OFFENSE LEARN MARTZ’S SYSTEM QUICKLY?: I really don’t know that. The thing that I feel bad about was this is our fourth offensive coordinator in four years. The one thing I like, especially about our quarterback position, is we have three guys right now who are highly intelligent. When you understand the playbook sooner, then you get the timing going, then you get the chemistry going. I feel good about the quarterbacks learning quick. It will be an adjustment, even if you have the same system you have a different guy in your ear, calling the plays.

ARE ASPECTS OF WHAT ALEX LEARNED AT UTAH THE SAME IN MARTZ OFFENSE?: Probably. You go through and look at the top 30 or 40 teams in the country, about 70 percent run the same system. A lot of shotgun, a lot of 3 and 4 receiver sets. It doesn’t mean a quarterback can’t adjust to a different system. One thing I respect about Alex (Smith), even with the coordinator changes, is that we saw progress in year two. We were sitting there at year three and we were 2-1 and then he gets hurt in the third play of the (third) game. He tried to comeback but his shoulder was hurt. It’s a set back. He’s 23, he’s going to work at it. I’d be disappointed if he’s not a dang good football player. I like what Shaun did, he came in and proved he’s got value. It’s a good situation to be in, we have some competition.

HOW ARE THE NEGOTIATIONS WITH SHAUN?: Good. It’s a work in progress. He wants to be here and we want him back.

HOW ABOUT SIGNING JUSTIN SMILEY AND KWAME HARRIS?: They will go to the free-agent market. The market will set the price range. We are not good enough to overspend on one player when we know we need a couple. We’re not a team yet where we are on the Super Bowl verge.

WILL LARRY ALLEN RETIRE, AND IF HE DOESN’T WILL YOU SIGN HIM?: We’ll talk about it. I think he’ll take his time, it’s very important what his family thinks. He played better the second half of the season, which was nice to see. The whole line, for the first half of the season, just couldn’t get on the same page. That was a group I was really impressed with last year and I thought coming in this year, they’d be solid for dang sure.

IF DEREK SMITH DOESN’T COME BACK DO YOU HAVE A STRONG INSIDE LINEBACKER?: That’s something we’ll address as well if Derek is not back. Brandon (Moore)is more of a big-body guy, Jeff Ulbrich is a little undersized.

HOW’S THE TALENT IN THE SHRINE GAME AND THE SENIOR BOWL?: Probably 60 to 65 percent of that roster will be on a NFL team next year, either on the 53 or the practice squad. The Senior Bowl will probably be 90 to 95 percent.

NOTE: McCloughan said he wasn’t opposed to hiring of strength and conditioning coach Daune Carlisle, something a source had said. McCloughan said the source was wrong and he went to Carlisle today to assure him.